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SALT LAKE CITY — The Pac-12 preseason media poll is out and the Utes are picked to finish second in the South, according to the conference Wednesday.
Utah is picked to finish behind USC in the South, but claimed 14 first-place votes in the poll — the most since joining the conference. The Trojans claimed 22 first-place votes for an overall score of 225, narrowly beating out Utah’s score of 209.
The two programs, though, lost out to conference favorite Washington (249 points), which was picked to win the North and the conference. The Huskies claimed 40 first-place votes to win the North and another 37 first-place votes to win the conference. USC (2), Oregon (1), Stanford (1) and UCLA (1) also each earned votes to win the conference.
This is the second consecutive year Utah has been picked to finish behind the Trojans, and the third overall season since the Utes joined the conference. Utah finished fifth in the South last season after struggling to win conference games.
The South is expected to be a highly-contested division in the Pac-12, with Arizona (178 points) receiving three first-place votes and UCLA (116 points) earning two. Arizona and UCLA, though, bring in new coaching staffs and have questions surrounding each program for the immediate future. Colorado (80 points) and Arizona State (72 points) round out the rest of the South division, with Colorado earning one first-place vote.
The North appears to be solely in favor of the Huskies, but Stanford (198 points) and Oregon (178 points) each garnered one first-place vote. The remaining North teams are Cal (108 points), Washington State (98 points) and Oregon State (45 points).
